On 8 May earlier this week, YouTube megastar MrBeast recently held a giveaway on his Instagram page to celebrate his birthday on 7 May, announcing that he would be giving away US$10,000 (or SGD$13,257) to 5 random people, out of almost 40 million of his followers.

For context, MrBeast’s number of followers amounts to more than the combined population of both Singapore and Malaysia.

All the participants had to do were follow @mrbeast on Instagram, share his Instagram post on their own Instagram stories and tag someone in the comments section.

The giveaway was open to the whole world, excluding New York.

However, the initial post was taken down Instagram, and MrBeaast then said that it was no issue because his team had been saving the names.

And he then updated his giveaway and said that he would be giving US$10,000 to 10 people this time instead of the 5 originally announced.

MrBeast then announced the ten winners of the giveaway, posting screenshots of the winners’ Instagram accounts on his Instagram story and tagging them in it.

A Singaporean visual and graphics designer, Sheryl Tan (@meyyen_) became 1 out of the 10 winners of the giveaway after the winners were announced.

Tan then reposted the story about her win and said that she was hyperventilating when she found out about it.

The biggest YouTuber on the platform

MrBeast is the online identity of 25-year-old online American content creator Jimmy Donaldson, who is the most subscribed YouTuber on the video sharing platform, with more than 150 million subscribers (discounting the other YouTube channels run by corporations).

He is estimated to have earned US$54 million from his videos and businesses in 2021 and an estimated US$110 million last year.

Some of his acts of generosity include tipping service staff at eateries $10,000, giving away cars, houses and even entire islands.

TikTok user @sirbentleyp shared how she wanted to buy a set of 4D numbers from the Singapore Pools online betting service but didn’t manage to register her account in time – her numbers ended up being the first prize of the lottery.

She posted a video about her experience on TikTok, captioning it “brb (be right back), crying,” and said that she was having drinks with two of her colleagues at two different places, with the final bill at both places coming up to exactly $167.51.

They then took it to be a sign from the universe (or the god of fortune) and decided to buy 1,6,7,5 using all the possible permutations (iBet) for the 4D draw over the weekend.

She said in a text message to her colleagues that if she wins, she will “throw letter”, implying that she would quit her job if she won.

Bentley then tried to register for an online Singapore Pools account on 5 May for the upcoming 4D draws on 6 and 7 May, but found out that the account application would take 2 days to be processed.

She then received a notification that her Singapore Pools online account was activated on 6 May at 8.58pm, which was already passed the 4D draw timing.

She then went to check on the winning 4D numbers for the day and realised that her numbers had come in first prize for that draw.

Netizens commented on her video and asked why she didn’t just head down to a Singapore Pools physical outlet to place her bets since she knew her account would take 2 days to activate.

Netizens’ comments

1. Lazy people don’t deserve to win the lottery I guess
2. When Cai Shen Ye want to bless you but you just let it slip
3. WHY NEVER GO OUTLET AND BUY
4. Omg Should have just went down to outlet buy
5. 4d toto these kind is see fate and destiny one. Like relatives pass away then give number in ur dreams etc. If u are meant to win, u will win it one.

FULL VIDEO LOADING…

Source: @sirbentleyp on TikTok

My car was parked at the MSCP beside my block in the Sembawang GRC. My estate is undergoing some renovation works which includes rectification works at the MSCP and the painting of the blocks in my estate.

On 15 of December 2022 which is a Thursday, I parked my car in the lot near the washing bay of my MSCP. I notice a group of workers mixing paint right beside the lot where my car is parked. I assume that they are the painters doing the painting for the blocks in my estate. On Friday evening when I came back to my car, I noticed my car had paint spots all over it. My car is black in colour so it was very obvious. My first thought was the painters who were mixing paint at the lot where my car was parked the previous day.

Since it was Friday evening, I contacted Sembawang Town Council the very next Monday to report the damage to my car. I received a call from Sembawang Town Council staff a few days later telling me that the project is under HDB purview and she already forwarded my complaint to the Sembawang HDB branch. I waited for one month but nobody from HDB contacted me regarding my complaint.

I went down to my MSCP to find the contact number of the project manager of the renovation works being done at the MSCP. I WhatsApp the project manager on 1st of Feb 2023. I told him about my case and he said he would look into it. I received an email from one of the contractors asking a staff from HDB to follow up on an email sent on 11 Jan 2023. I was cc in the email. Two HDB officers were in the email loop.

After one week of no response, I sent an email reply to this email asking for an update on 9 Feb 2023. I stated in this email that my car lease had expired and I would need to return the car to the rental company but I could not do so because of the paint damage. I am incurring weekly rental and the season parking for this car. Nobody in the email loop replied. After three weeks of waiting, on 22 Feb 2023, I sent another email asking them for an update and also received no reply from anyone in the email loop. Apparently HDB officers couldn’t be bothered with my case.

I waited until 14 of March and I called the HDB hotline to ask for an update on my case. The very day on 15 March, I received a call from a HDB staff telling me that he had taken over the case from the previous officer and he needed time to investigate. I told him ok and I would wait for his reply. This officer also went MIA and I did not receive a single reply.

On 5 April 2023, I went down to meet my MP Ong Ye Kung at the MPS and explained my situation to him. He helped draft a letter to HDB asking them to look into my case. The very next day on 6 April 2023, I received a call from one of the contractors asking to discuss my case. I told the contractor to ask HDB to find a solution and not keep asking me details about the case which I have provided to them 4 months ago.

Nothing was heard from the contractor or HDB until 13 April 2023 when I received an email from a Senior Estate Manager from HDB that he is looking into my case and needs more time to respond. After this nothing was heard again from HDB. On 3 May 2023, a General Manager from HDB sent an email stating that the contractor would be contacting me regarding the damage done to my car.

I waited until 8 May 2023 when I finally received a call from the contractor. To my surprise, the contractor told me that they could not find the person who was responsible for damaging my car. There is no evidence that it is the workers from their company that did the paint damage to my car. I told the contractor that there are only two groups of people doing paint works at the estate and who else could have done the paint damage to my car. They would be offering to polish my car out of goodwill instead. I rejected their offer straight away and told them that I would be filing claims for my rentals payments and season parking. The contractor told me straight that my claim would not go through even if I tried. I told the contractor that if I knew this would happen, I would have gone to the police and made a report about it. They would have gotten the CCTV from the carpark to see what actually happened but after 4 months, I think the CCTV footage would have been long over written. The contractor then said he would tell HDB my response and ask me to again wait for a reply from HDB. Another round of the waiting game.

After nearly 4 months and one week, I got this reply. The HDB took 4 months to come up with this reply. They are inefficient or really incompetent. They took 4 whole months to investigate and my case got passed around to god knows who many HDB officers. I didn’t know that HDB officers were this inefficient and not once in the 4 months did they reply or updated me. It was only when I went to see my MP that I got a conclusion to my case.

If I knew that HDB was this inefficient, I would have bear the polishing cost right at the start and settle it myself. After 4 months of waiting, the paint would have eaten into my car body paint. I have to bear the rental cost of my car during this period when I could have return the car to the rental company in Feb 2023.

I have attached some pictures of the paint spots that are all over my car. I have all the email and whatsapp conversations with the contractor and HDB if further verification on my story is needed.

Facebook user Geraldine Huang shared how she was in Korea for a holiday when she bought a $900 bag with her YouTrip card.

However the merchant didn’t receive the money and the transaction was still pending, and they wouldn’t give the bag to her until the transaction went through.

Huang then checked the YouTrip app and found out that she had to wait 8 days for a resolution outcome on the transaction, but she had a flight to catch on the same day.

She then called their Singapore-based customer service hotline and eventually got her refund, but she later found a bill of $100 incurred for overseas call charges.

Here is what she said

I am a very unhappy customer of youtrip and their customer service cannot seem to resolve this issue.

I was in Korea from 23rd to 28th Mar 2023. On the last day of my trip, I went to purchase a SGD 900+ MCM bag . The transaction was pending but the merchant says it did not received the funds and would not release the bag to me.

I checked youtrip app, had to wait for 8 days for outcome (no gaurantee there is a refund) but I’m leaving Korea on that day! What if I just left, amount deducted, no bag and youtrip don’t refund me?

There was no option for live chat and I could only send an email. I sent immediately hoping for a reply. Waited for 30mins or so but there was no reply. I had a plane to catch and I couldn’t stay to wait any longer.

I think anyone in my situation would have no choice but to make a call to customer service which was exactly what i did. Their customer service was a sg no.

After the call back to sg, refund was done immediately but $100 bill was incurred for overseas call charges.

I DO NOT think this is fair for me to bear the charges since its youtrip/merchant transaction/IT issues.

Called up to customer service again when I’m back in sg, they tried to push the blame to say I could have just emailed them instead of call. That way, the charges will not be incurred! I have tried, it doesnt work, and fact is, it’s only after the call the prob is resolved.

When escalated to manager, her exact words in email was that I was informed from the start of the call that the wait will be 20 mins. In other words, I could have just hang up since I knw that overseas calls will be expensive.

Their compensation will be $20 and not the full $100. So am I supposed to just suck it up ?!